Sears to Close Additional Stores as it Looks to Return to Profitability

Sears Holdings' (SHLD) Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert on Friday announced the closure of an additional eight Sears and 35 Kmart unprofitable stores, as it continues its efforts on a return to profitability.

The company intends to reduce the square footage of other locations and move towards smaller store concepts.

This will allow the retailer focus its efforts on its stronger categories, while also reducing the number and size of larger, less competitive stores, Lampert added.

"We have made significant progress in our restructuring program since the beginning of the year and are well on track to achieve our $1.25 billion annualized cost savings target. We also continue to pursue a range of steps to improve our liquidity and reduce our debt," Lampert wrote in a blog post.

What's Hot On TheStreet

The biggest deal-maker around strikes again: Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a division of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., (BRK.A) (BRK.B) , confirmed Friday that it will purchase Oncor Electric Delivery Co. LLC in a deal that values the bankrupt unit's equity at $11.25 billion. "Oncor is an excellent fit for Berkshire Hathaway, and we are pleased to make another long-term investment in Texas - when we invest in Texas, we invest big!", Buffett said in a statement. "Oncor is a great company with similar values and outstanding assets."

Clearly, Buffett is still bullish on America's future. TheStreet takes a look at the billionaire's biggest bets on America.

Who cares, Elon: Tesla (TSLA) agreed to build the world's largest lithium-ion battery park in South Australia on Friday, signing off on a deal to finish the installation within 100 days or give it away for free. Failure to deliver the project on time would cost his company about $50 million, said CEO Elon Musk, though neither the state government nor Tesla released details of the contract.

Qualcomm battle with Apple gets even nastier: Qualcomm (QCOM) added a couple of unexpected wrinkles into its legal salvo with Apple (AAPL) , TheStreet's tech columnit Eric Jhonsa says. One of these wrinkles aims to neutralize some of the legal arguments Apple, as well as certain regulators, have been making against Qualcomm. The other, says Jhonsa, aims to both lower the odds of a political intervention in Apple's favor, as well as boost Qualcomm's near-term chip sales at Intel Corp.'s (INTC) expense.